Banker’s Hours
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LONGWOOD MAGAZINE
to help small business owners meet the challenges of Covid-19. Her work with Gavin’s House of Flowers in South Hill is just one example of the contributions she has made in that role. With events like weddings and proms being postponed or cancelled, 2020 was a challenging year for House of Flowers owner Gavin Honeycutt. But he credits Beale and the SBDC with helping him net a 10 percent increase in business in the face of that challenge. “After I started working with Katherine and the resources she provided, my phone started to ring again,” Honeycutt told the South Hill News-Progress. “Because of SBDC, I have a new vision for the future.” Beale signed on with the SBDC in May 2020. SBDC’s consulting services are provided free of charge.
Alum logs a 37-year career at Virginia’s fourth-oldest bank, then signs on for more after retirement
career in banking isn’t always perceived as the most exciting, but for JOHN HUDSON ’80 it has been filled with twists, turns and opportunities to stretch his creative wings. Starting out as a security guard, he worked 37 years at the Bank of Clarke County, rising through the ranks to teller, collections, lender and finally chief marketing officer—the bank’s first. Rather than working with an agency, as most banks do, Bank of Clarke County put all of its creative advertising work in Hudson’s hands, which actually had been trained to play the piano when he was a music major at Longwood. (Hudson also studied voice and was the first president of Longwood’s Mu Delta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.) In his early marketing work, Hudson remembers creating advertisements on graph paper with Sharpies, then taking the plunge into computer-based graphic design when it came along. He also worked on the bank’s radio and television ads, where his music background came in handy in composing a jingle for the bank. Even after retiring at the end of 2020, Hudson continues to help carry out the bank’s mission as executive director of the institution’s newly formed charitable foundation. He has always been heavily involved in the bank’s charitable giving, and the foundation will provide more flexibility and growth in that area, he said. “Forming the foundation will allow us to grow the foundation’s assets and increase the pool of available funds each year. We truly believe in the philosophy that the better the communities, the better the bank,” Hudson said. He agreed to take on the foundation job as long as it wasn’t a full-time responsibility. “Been there—done that,” said Hudson. “I’m ready to pursue other interests that have been on the back burner.” One of those interests has been lingering back there for 45 years. “I walked into Farmville United Methodist Church the first Sunday I was in Farmville during my freshman year, which was 1976,” said Hudson. “My pastor, Rev. Marvin C. ‘Windy’ Cook from Duncan Memorial in Berryville had been transferred there. The first thing I see when I enter the sanctuary is the most beautiful stained-glass window I had ever seen. I took a picture of it and vowed I would paint it one day. “After many years of starting and Hudson’s painting of the stained glass window at stopping, I promised myself I would finish it. Farmville United Methodist Church And I did.”—Sabrina Brown
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WHERE IN THE WOOD? The Longwood community extends to the birds who feather their nests in custom houses on Brock Commons.
Tamara L. Brown ’89 is the executive dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of North Texas and a professor of psychology. Among her areas of scholarship is the history of Black sororities and fraternities, including “their dedication to combat discrimination and the lifelong family-like bonds they create.” In an article published on the University of North Texas website, Brown reflected on a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention by Kamala Harris, who would go on to be elected vice president: “… Harris saluted seven women who ‘inspired us to pick up the torch and fight on.’ All but two of them, one of whom was her mother, belonged to Black sororities. Harris also mentioned her own Black sorority, saying: ‘Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha.’ Many Americans may have wondered why Harris would invoke sororities on such an occasion. But not me. Like her, I am a proud member of a Black sorority: Delta Sigma Theta, which I joined as a student at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. If I were in Harris’ shoes, accepting such an unprecedented leadership role, I, too, would have paid homage to my sorority as a way to thank those on whose shoulders I stand.”